Memory
by Jemlela
Summary: An explosion and a concussion affects the memory of a team member. Sending his mind back to that of an eleven year old.
1. Explosion

**_I know that Deeks losing his memory has been done before, but this is a different take on it. It takes place in Season 5 while Kensi is in Afghanistan._**

* * *

The day started out like any other day with Kensi gone. Callen and Sam try to include Marty in activities but he declines. Actually he is pushing them away. With Kensi here, he would be with her. But now he just feels alone.

He gets up at the crack of dawn which is easy since he isn't sleeping much anyway. He hasn't been surfing much either, his heart just isn't it. Kensi was the only one he ever let in and with our her, his heart is breaking. Well, the only girl he let in anyway. Ray is his best friend, but he is gone, disappeared into WitSec. His other best friend has a busy life and no time for him.

Marty walks into Ops at 6:30 in the morning to began the paperwork from yesterday's case. 2 hours later Sam and Callen walk into the building teasing each other as they have always done. They should have been shocked to see Marty already hard at work, but they weren't. The bags under his eyes becoming darker.

"Deeks, what time did you get up this morning?" Callen asks.

Without looking at them he answers "5:30"

"And what time did you go to bed?" Sam inquires.

"I don't see how that is any of your business." Marty answers and levels for the shooting range.

Callen and Sam have been getting really worried about him. They see the effect that Kensi's departure is having on him. They hope she returns soon for Marty's sake.

With as bad as things are getting, when there is a case. Marty is his usual self, doing whatever it takes to get the job done. That is probably one of the reasons, that Hetty and Callen haven't benched him.

* * *

No one knows what really happened. Sam, Callen and Marty arrive at the suspect's house. As they approach the house it blows. The force of the explosion sends them flying.

Sam comes to first. He checks his surrounding. The house is gone, a few feet from him Callen is beginning to come to. Sam races over to help him up.

"You good?" Sam asks.

"I think so. What about you?"

"I'm alright." Sam responds. They look around and don't see Marty anywhere.

"Deeks!" They call out together.

No response. They start searching for him. They do find him unconscious with a head wound. By the amount of blood surrounding his head, he must have cracked his head open when he hit the ground.

"Eric call for an ambulance! Deeks is hurt." Callen calls out.

* * *

At the hospital Callen and Sam are in the waiting room waiting for answers about their teammate. They hear a voice.

"I'm looking for Marty Deeks. I was told he was brought here."

Sam and Callen look to see who the voice belongs to. They are shock to see that it belongs to Kip Brigham.. A hot shot basketball player who leads the league in scoring.

How does he know Marty? Why is he here?

"You are Kip Brigham. How do you know Marty?" Callen asks.

Before Kip could respond the doctor interrupts.

"I am Dr. Casey. Marty has a severe concussion but he is awake. What is concerning me the most is that he think he is eleven years old, but he has total amnesia."

Sam, Callen and Kip stood there in shock. This was not what they were expecting to happen when the day began.


	2. Lying

"It is the strangest case of memory loss I have ever seen." Dr. Casey commented.

"Why do you say that?" Callen asks.

"I have seen patients who memory has gone back to an earlier time and I have seen others who can't remember anything. But never have I seen both."

Kip thinks about what Dr. Casey is saying and something occurs to him. "Marty having total amnesia is that your medical opinion or did he hint at it."

"Marty is claiming not to know who he is just that he thinks that he is eleven. Why?"

"I believe that Marty maybe lying."

Callen and Sam watches this conversation between Marty's doctor and his friend they did not know existed before today. They know who Kip Brigham is, they watch him play and have even been to his games. What they don't know is how he knows Marty.

"You think Marty is lying?" Callen asks.

"I totally believe that Marty thinks that he is eleven. The part that I am doubting is that He has amnesia. I won't know for sure until I talk to him."

"Well, talk to him and let's get to the bottom of this." Dr. Casey says as he leads Kip, Sam and Callen to Marty's room.

* * *

Marty is laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling. A part of his head had been shaved in order to stitch up the laceration. Over the stitches is a bandage to protect and hide it. Dr. Casey didn't seem thrilled to find out he can't remember anything. He is beginning to wonder how long he can keep it up.

In his room walks in Dr. Casey, and 3 other men he doesn't recognize. 2 of them appear to be African American and the other one is the same skin tone as him, Caus something or another. His mother had always told him the appropriate words to use when describing the different skin colors. He just can't pronounce which one he is. " White" is so much easier to pronounce than that technical term. His father had always downgraded everyone and everything including Mom and him. His mom had taught him that the technical description is the appropriate way of describing someone, anything else is just sinking down to his father's level. The last thing he ever wanted to do was be anything like that monster.

"Hi, I am Kip. Now can you tell me your name?"

"They tell me that my name is Marty Deeks."

"Really, that is interesting because I happen to know that your name is not Deeks, but Brandel." Kip responds.

Marty deflates as he knew he was busted. "Are you here to arrest me?" He asks in a small voice.

"No, but no more lies. The doctors can't help you if you are lying to them."

Marty nods upset that he is still a Brandel.

"So, Marty can you tell me anything about these people who had come in with me." Dr. Casey asks trying to see what his memory is really doing.

"Sure, there are 2 men who are African American and one who is Caus something or another." He answers.

Sam and Callen don't understand what is going on here and Kip smirks, typical Marty.

"Marty, you are to do what the doctor tells you to do." Kip orders.

"Try and get some sleep." Dr. Casey tells him patting his arm.

Kip watches as Marty begins to shut his eyes. He opens them again before falling asleep.

* * *

Everyone exits the room to allow Marty to sleep.

"How did you know that he was lying?" Callen asks after they left the room.

Kip took a deep breath to decide how much he should tell Marty's coworkers about what he went through. The decision would be so much easier if Marty didn't have a concussion and thinks that he is eleven.

"When Marty was eleven, he had PTSD. Everyday he would wish for amnesia so that he wouldn't have to deal with it." Kip explains.

"How did you 2 meet?" Sam asks.

"While Marty was still in the hospital after the shooting incident. I was already in foster care and he was going to be my new foster brother. Alexis and Antonio Martinez were going to be his foster parents while he is in the hospital and after he is released."

"Wait! What shooting incident?" Callen and Sam asks in unison.

Kip looks at them confused. He thought they already knew.

"Marty shot his father. I thought you knew that."

Kip could tell by the confuse look on their faces that they didn't know.

"Marty's father was an alcoholic abusive monster towards Marty and his mother. After suffering a severe concussion and faced with an irate drunk with a shotgun. He grabbed a hand gun and fired. It was a flesh wound and his father went to prison. His mom didn't make it, she was beaten to death." Kip explains.

"I am not a psychologist and I don't play one on TV. But, I am guessing that the concussion Marty suffered in the explosion sent his mind back to the concussion he suffered after that shooting incident." Dr. Casey speaks up.

"But why now. As a cop, Marty has suffered many concussion. Why did this concussion send him back." Kip asks.

Sam and Callen look at each other. They had an idea. They didn't know that he had been abused, but what he went through with Sidorov could be a huge contributing factor.

"Nate would have a field day, but he may be able to help." Callen comments to Sam.

"Who is Nate?" Dr. Casey asks.

" An Operational Psychologist that we work with."

"Kip, I have a question for you. What was with Marty's description of us as being African American." Sam asks.

"His mother has taught him to always use the proper appropriate term when describing skin tones. I tried to tell him that there are others word that can do the same thing and still be acceptable since he can't pronounce Caucasian so it always Caus something or another. He truly believes that the appropriates terms are the only acceptable ones and anything else is stooping to his father's level. A mean drunk who hurt his family, who knows what he had said to Marty over the years, although I am sure that none of it was good." Kip answers

This whole situation makes Sam and Callen hurt for their teammate they never truly knew.


	3. PTSD

Callen and Sam look into the room that is currently housing their injured teammate who currently believes he is eleven years old. They both wonder how did things get so screwed up in such a short period of time.

"What's going to happen now?" Callen asked Dr. Casey.

"Due to the severity of his concussion, we are going to keep him here overnight for observation. If he does well we can release him tomorrow, that is if he has someone to watch him. He may not actually be eleven but as long as he thinks he is, we have to treat him as one."

"Well that is not a problem. I will take him." Kip speaks up.

"Don't you have a game in Philadelphia?" Sam questions.

"Do you honestly believe I care more about that dumb game than I do about Marty?" Kip spews angrily.

"No, of course not. But what would Marty think if you miss your game because of him." Callen counters back.

Kip stops to think, his friend would hate it. Especially if he was the reason for missing the game. Kip remembers all the times that Marty didn't tell him he was hurt just so that it didn't interfere with his career.

"Your right. Marty would hate it, so what are we supposed to do? I can't take him with me, because I can't watch him. An adult who believes he is eleven because of a concussion can find trouble when left to his own defenses. Although Marty does not need any help finding trouble."

"Sam and I can watch him as well." Callen offers.

"Fine, but just do it at my place. I will feel a lot more at ease if I know he is there, besides he already has a room there." Kip agrees.

Callen sends Sam home to his wife and daughter. Marty is spending the night in the hospital and he is not needed here. Kip and Callen take a seat in Marty's room, watching him sleep. As a basketball player, Kip is used to sleeping anywhere and Callen doesn't sleep he just cat naps.

"Does your team know about Marty?" Callen asks suddenly.

"They know him and they know he is my best friend. They know I was a foster child, but they don't that Marty was too." Kip answers.

Callen was somewhat confused by that answer. But then again he never suspected that Marty had been in foster care. He never even knew that Marty was abused. It makes him wonder just how much Kensi knows about Marty's past. He is pretty sure Hetty knows as Hetty seems to know everything.

"Why did you pass him off as your best friend and not your foster brother, or even your brother?" Callen wonders.

"Marty doesn't like people knowing he was in foster care. For him to admit that would be like opening up Pandora's box and nothing good ever comes out of opening that particular box. So when he decided to keep his past a secret, I had no choice but to go along with it." Kip explains.

Callen nods, he knows a little something about Pandora's box himself. However, if opening the box gave him the answers he so desperately seek, he would do it in a heartbeat.

"Did you know that Marty reason I got into basketball." Kip brings up.

Callen waits for him to continue.

"My parents died in a car accident while I was school one day. I went to school that morning and the next thing I knew they were gone. I almost got into a bad crowd, a gang. Marty is the reason I didn't. He saw me with them and confronted me.

* * *

 _Flashback_

 _Marty walks into Kip's room._

 _"Why are you hanging out with them. They are bad news and the only thing that is going to happen is that they will get you in trouble."_

 _Kip turns around to see Marty standing there glaring at him._

 _"Just stay out of it, you don't know anything about it."_

 _"I get that your angry that you are here. But getting involved with a gang is asking for trouble. You need to find something to pour your anger into that isn't going to wreck the rest of your life." Marty counters._

 _Kip shakes his head. "What do you propose that something is?"_

 _"It is **your** life. **You** figure it out." Marty says as he leaves to go back to his room._

 _Flashback ends_

* * *

"Marty then went back to his room and crawled into a ball as he usually did. The next day at school we started playing basketball. When I held the ball in my hands, it all made sense." Kip said as he finished telling the story to Callen.

"When did he get over his PTSD?" Callen asks.

Kip thinks about it. After Marty's last name changed. He appeared to be getting better, but maybe he just became better at hiding it.

"To tell you the truth, I don't think he ever did. Maybe he just got better at hiding it, but it was always there, just under the surface."

Callen doesn't know what else he should say so he just nods. One thing they all know for sure is that they got their work cut out for them. They want him to beat the PTSD this time, not allow it to remain under the surface.

* * *

Sam walks into his house and is greeted by Michelle. Karman who had been doing her homework at the kitchen table gets up to throw her arms around her dad. Sam just stood there taking in the scene, a scene Marty never knew. He knew that Callen never had it either, that Callen's past is out there somewhere and he will never give up looking. Funny, Callen is looking for his past while Marty seems to be running from his. Michelle notices that he never budge from the door, she sends Karman back to the table.

"Sam, are you alright?" Michelle asks.

Sam just shakes his head, indicating they will talk later.

Sam takes his time putting Karman to bed, embracing the situation and the love he has for his daughter. Knowing someone who grew up in an abusive home, makes him appreciate his children that much more. By the time he went into his bedroom, he had silent tears falling down his face.

Michelle knows that something has been bothering Sam since he came home. Seeing the look on his face as he enters the bedroom makes her fear for the worst. She comforts him until he can tell her what is going on.

Sam doesn't even know where to begin, so he decides to start with something light. "I met Kip Brigham today."

Michelle knows who he is but is unsure what he has to do with why her husband so upset.

"Okay."

"Turns out he is Marty's foster brother." Sam continues.

Michelle wasn't expecting that. She didn't know Marty was even in foster care. Actually she doesn't really know Marty at all.

"There was an explosion today at a suspects' house. The force of the explosion caused Marty to crack his head open when he hit the ground." Sam begins.

"Is he okay?" Michelle interrupts.

"Okay is a very loose term for this situation. Marty has a concussion and believes he is eleven years old. What is worse is that this eleven year old has PTSD."

Michelle says nothing but feels for him. Something horrible had to happen to him or he saw something horrible happen in order for a child to develop PTSD.

"What happened to him?" Michelle whispers.

"From what Kip told us, Marty's father abused him and his mother for who knows how long. At just eleven years old, when he was faced with an abusive alcoholic monster with a shotgun, Marty felt that he had no choice but to shoot him. His father lived as it was only a flesh wound and he went to prison. Marty's mother died though from the injuries she suffered that night." Sam finished explaining, his voice cracking as he told the story.

"Poor Marty, so what is going to happen now?"

"He is still in the hospital for observation. If all goes well, he will be released into Callen and my care as well as Kips. Marty will be going to Kip's house and we will take it from there. Marty maybe an adult but his mind has gone back to the time following the incident where he shot his father." Sam explains.

"You do what you have to do to get him better. Karman and I will be okay, and maybe we can even help a bit as well." Michelle offers.

Sam nods and gets ready for bed. He know that he better try to get a goodnight sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long day.


End file.
